Rachel Maddow's Surge Is Fox News' Worst Ratings Nightmare

1:25 am - 01/01/2013

After prophesying a landslide win for Mitt Romney, Fox New has seen its ratings decline lot more than usual since the election — and Sean Hannity's viewers in particular keep disappearing, while Rachel Maddow's continue to tune in over at rival MSNBC.

The last batch of Nielsen data available before year's end shows Hannity's viewership getting chopped in half after November 6, according to th New York Daily News's Don Kaplan. Politico's Dylan Byer argues his decline simply brings Hannity back to pre-election norms. Or perhaps these vanishing viewers are just disgruntled voters who can't stomach the news cycle anymore. Kaplan, however, attributes this decline to Hannity's implied predictions

... viewers who basked in his preelection anti-Obama rhetoric tuned him out when they were stunned to wake up on Nov. 7 and discover that the President had won a second term — a scenario that Hannity had all but promised could never happen.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz — who both, of course, did not predict a Romney victory — hav retained most of their viewership n the weeks following election night, and CNN's Anderson Cooper has lost almost none. With ratings holding strong after Obama's reelection and Maddo appearingThe Colbert Report, it appears like MSNBC is making good on president Phil Griffin's plan t bolster the channel's brand awareness

But these trends may began long before Hannity and other Fox News commentators led viewers to believe Romney was a shoe-in. Media blog News Corps notes hat throughout 2012, Fox News experienced by far the slowest year-over-year growth amongst the three major cable news channels. And even though MSNBC has captured many more eyeballs within the lucrative 25-54 demographic, Fox News stil retains primetime dominance n the world of 24-hour TV news. What's left for CNN next year, well, that's up to new boss Jeff Zucker to decide.

I clicked on the source and there was a huge picture of Hannity (? - I'm not sure - that is how much I avoid Fox) and gave out a little gasp of revulsion. I am mostly joking suggesting a trigger warning be added for douchecanoes.

I really wish that this was because Fox News viewers have seen how out of touch with reality the network is, but I have to admit that I don't have a high opinion of Fox News viewers. I'm going with laziness, exhaustion, and discouragement after the election.

Not completely relevant, but I have suck a crush on Rachel Maddow and I am sure I am far from alone on this here.

I clicked on the source and there was a huge picture of Hannity (? - I'm not sure - that is how much I avoid Fox) and gave out a little gasp of revulsion. I am mostly joking suggesting a trigger warning be added for douchecanoes.

She rocks, and Chris Hayes is a happy surprise bonus I got from watching Rachel Maddow's show. They're both some of the smartest and astute political pundits on TV. And even David Brooks of the New York Times had high praise for Chris Haye's book (even though naturally he disagreed with the conclusions).

Faux's ideology took them beyond the point where even folks desperately trying to defend them can't convince themselves that Faux isn't politically biased to the point of being useless as far as information goes.

I've been starting to wonder if the person they have drive around the neighborhood looking for violations every two weeks is also a bitter Republican who just isn't notifying the managing company. Or I wonder if the homeowner is swallowing fines to ~make a statement~.

This entire state refuses to acknowledge that they were lied to and misled by faux news. They will keep the signs up until 2016. Anytime there is a story about Romney's campaign in a detrimental way - its the "libtards and their kool-aid".

So yeah, they will never allow that maybe they were *gasp" wrong.

Instead they're all buying more guns and building up a bunker for their supplies. I only wish I were joking about this.

I like Rachel. She's tough, opinionated, and she doesn't back down to people who hate her for being herself. These are admirable qualities. But I really don't like MSNBC; it's the same thing as Fox News, but for the other side. It isn't news. It's opinion, rhetoric, with quotes of the day and some highlights of news thrown in. I really can't see that it's any better than Fox. I think I'll have to stick with BBC or NPR right now.

Maybe, also, Fox's programming has just plain gotten old. You can turn into Hannity any day of the week and guess what he and his guests are going to say just by what the topics of the night are going to be. Being stale, and being wrong about everything last election, has to be the reason for viewer fatigue.